Meet the Staff: Steven D. Mathews

Name: Steven David Mathews

Position in Library: Library Assistant (Part Time)

Education: Muhlenberg High School, 2004; Ithaca College (Bachelor of Music in Music Education), 2008; and University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music (Master of Music in Music Theory), 2010. I began my PhD in music theory at the University of Cincinnati in September 2010, passed my doctoral written and oral exams in 2012, and I am currently working on a dissertation on the linear, harmonic, and rhythmic implications of sonata forms that lack a double-return recapitulation in the music of several eighteenth- and nineteenth-century composers.

Favorite Books: I own and borrow many books. Some of my favorites over the last 15 years include the following:

• Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
• Howards End, E. M. Forster
• Deep Work, Cal Newport
• Ways of Worldmaking, Nelson Goodman
• Free Composition (Der freie Satz), Heinrich Schenker
• Miles: The Autobiography, Miles Davis
• The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
• Coltrane: Chasin’ the Trane, J.C. Thomas
• The Sorrows of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of
• Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, William Caplin
• Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the 
• Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata, James Hepokoski & Warren Darcy;
• Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music, V. Kofi Agawu
• Deeper than Reason: Emotion & its Role in Literature, Music, & Art, Jenefer
• Robinson
• Music in the Galant Style, Robert O. Gjerdingen

Favorite Movies: Some of my favorite movies include the following: Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Julius Caesar (1953), Jurassic Park (1993), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Annie Hall (1977), The Big Lebowski (1998), Howards End (1992), On the Waterfront (1954), Amadeus (1984), Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Good Will Hunting (1998), Robin Hood (1973), Synecdoche, New York (2008).

Favorite Area of Library
My two favorite areas in at the Yocum Library are the magazine stacks on the third floor and the shelf of new books as soon as you walk in on the second floor.

Special InterestsClassical music from 1600–1950, American post-war Jazz, the European Enlightenment, the philosophy of emotion, and music theory pedagogy.

Hobbies
Whenever there’s time, I enjoy playing the piano, composing, arranging, writing magazine and book reviews, reading comic books (Superman, Batman, Daredevil, and The Walking Dead) and The New York Review of Books, attending concerts, movies, lectures, and The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD series, listening to many diverse podcasts, and learning about computer-assisted technology efficiency (i.e., how to use technology to increase one’s personal productivity).

Anything Else You Wish to Share
On June 22, 2013, my wife, Erin, and I were married at the Merner-Pfeiffer-Klein Memorial Chapel at Albright College. We met in 2002 through our shared experiences in various music activities throughout Berks County. We are thankful for the opportunities we’ve had to travel to Europe (especially Italy, Belgium, and Croatia) and spending time with our family and friends (especially our nieces).